Implementing Electronic Meeting Systems at IBM: Lessons Learned and Success Factors

Businesses of the future will rely more than ever on the work of teams. Making better use of the team times spend in meetings will be a high priority, as will being able to adapt rapidly to change. Electronic meeting systems (EMS), which apply information technology to support the meeting process, can help accomplish these goals. This paper describes and discusses the implementation of EMS at IBM in an alliance with the University of Arizona. During the past three years, the project has grown from initial support for a single site to 33 IBM sites, with more on the way. Over 15,000 people have used the ever-expanding and evolving EMS tool kit. Use of EMS has improved group performance by an average of 55 percent, with even more dramatic reductions in project calendar time. The lessons learned and success factors at IBM can assist managers in effectively introducing EMS to their organizations.